


Mato's Decision

by Sunder_the_Gold



Series: The Black Rock Shooter of Remnant [3]
Category: Black Rock Shooter - Fandom, RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 04:31:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11501823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunder_the_Gold/pseuds/Sunder_the_Gold
Summary: Two years before the disastrous 40th Vytal Festival, Kuroi Mato's family needs to know what she wants to do with this great discovery she doesn't even know she's made, because she's going to pick a fight for which she isn't equipped. Thankfully, they have her back.Best read after Chapter 1 of "Red Roses, Black Rocks".





	Mato's Decision

“Mom, Dad? What’s going on?”

Because of his international work, Grandpa only attended the most serious of family meetings. Mato had been thrilled when he flew into Vacuo just to attend her congratulatory party yesterday, but seeing him sitting across the coffee table with Grandma, looking at her so seriously, filled her with anxiety.

Her family responded with kind smiles. Her parents, sitting on either side of her, laid warm hands upon her.

Grandma said, “Peace, Braveheart. You’ve done nothing wrong. We just want to talk about what you want to do with your marvelous new invention.”

“The Black Rock Cannon? I want to be a huntress, and blow up Grimm!”

Her family shared a round of approving laughter, but she could hear an undercurrent of the kind of laughter adults used when they thought you were being naïve in a cute way.

“Yes, Braveheart,” Grandma said proudly. “You told us as much yesterday, many times.”

Dad took over. “What we’re actually talking about is the portable Dust crystallizer you invented. A lot of people are going to be very interested in that discovery.”

“Really? I don’t think many of them would find it all that helpful to crystallize powdered Dust out in the field. Other than Grandma and me, not many hunters have fire Semblances, right? Oh, did you want one, Grandma?! I could make you a _White Roc_ Cannon!”

Her family shared a laugh at her pun, but to Mato’s delight, the family matriarch’s expression quickly grew thoughtful.

Mom said to Grandma, “Oh, that could work very well for you, couldn’t it?”

Dad spoke again. “That would be very sweet of you, Mato, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’ve consulted a trusted friend, and she tells us that your invention could be used to radically improve _industrial_ Dust crystallizers. You made something so small that, if it were made bigger, would be at least twice as efficient as the machines currently used by the major companies.”

"What? Really?" She tried picturing the possibility. "I... I never thought about about scaling it up, I only needed it to... Can it actually do that?"

"Our friend ran the numbers, and she is absolutely convinced it'll work."

"Well, that's great! You're always talking about how the Schnee Dust Company is undercutting Vacuo's own Dust companies. If we give them an advantage, we can put those slavers in their place!"

"And that _is_ what you would prefer to do with your discovery? Keep it from the SDC and share it with our countrymen? Or would you also want to share it with non-Schnee Dust companies in other kingdoms, like Vale? Or the few other Atlesian Dust companies that still survive?"

"Well, sure, I guess. Anyone that isn't as bad as the SDC."

Her family seemed to relax a little. Grandpa said, "Having that many allies is certainly going to make this easier."

"What do you mean, Grandpa?"

Kindly, he answered with a question: "What do you know about patents, Mato?"

"They're- uh..." She'd seen and heard the word, and knew it related to ownership somehow, but when she thought about it... "I don't know."

Grandma took over. "Once upon a time, when someone discovered a powerful new technique, they would sometimes keep the secret for themselves rather than share it with others."

"That's horrible!"

"I imagine it often was. Sometimes, they did it because they feared someone else taking credit for the discovery. Wouldn't you feel horrible if you had showed your invention to a friend before anyone else, and they took it away and showed it to other people, claiming to have made it themselves?"

Mato's friends flashed to mind, and no sooner did she think none of them would betray her like that, she remembered a few other faces she had once considered friends. She could easily imagine one of them stealing her crystallizer, and it made their actual treacheries seem very small in comparison. To her grandmother, Mato nodded sullenly.

"Don't be ashamed, Braveheart. People need to be properly recognized for their achievements. It only becomes a problem when they value other people less than that need. We know you love people more than that, but we're not going to ask you to hide; we're going to do our best to shout your praise from the rooftops."

"Graaandmaaa~, nooooo~!"

They laughed. Mom, returned from the kitchen with a tray, set a cup of tea on the table in front of her, and ruffled her hair. "Better get accustomed to the idea, Honey. I'm afraid you're going to become famous."

"But I don't _want_ to be famous!"

Mom went around the table, and Grandma accepted her own cup of tea. "Fame can be very troublesome," Grandma commiserated. "But it has its uses, and we're going to need them."

"For _what?"_ Mato demanded in disgust, sulking behind her raised cup.

"Well," said Grandma, "Recognition wasn't the only reason people used to keep discoveries secret. They also wanted to eliminate competition. You said yourself that you wanted to keep your invention out of Jacques Schnee's hands, so that everyone else could finally get a leg up on the SDC."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, in this case; especially since you do intend to share it. But in the past, humanity had a real problem with inventors who took their secrets with them to the grave, denying humanity the potential of their discoveries until someone else was lucky enough to make the discovery all over again. Some inventors even hid the fact that they'd made any discovery at all."

"Why would they _do_ that?"

"You tell me, Braveheart: If the Schnee Dust Company sent someone to break into your workshop, steal your crystallizer and notes, and take those back to their engineers, how hard would it be for them to learn how to use your tricks for themselves?"

Her blood turned to ice... then fire. "Like hell they would!" Mato shot to her feet and stormed out of their living room.

Concerned, her family followed after her. "Mato, where are you going?"

"Making sure the garage is locked up!"

The adults paused and looked at each other. Her mother and grandfather went back inside, while her father and grandmother continued after her.

Mato burst outside into the late-morning air of Vacuo's Oasis City. The sun had yet to appear over the eastern cliff, but its light already bathed the grounds of her western-end home, including the garage she'd appropriated from her father for the last several months.

He lectured her from behind, as she rushed over the tile, stones, and gravel. "From now on, you should see the importance of making sure that your private work-space and projects are always secure." Her grandmother held out a hand in front of him as they walked behind; very low, to indicate a lack of objection to his point, but still an indication that she thought he need pursue it no farther than that. He offered no argument.

Mato noticed that he must have come by and closed the stronger and more complicated lock that she had neglected to use the last time, and many times before that. His previous lectures on the matter burned in her memory, forcing her to repeat the sequence twice to get it open.

Grandma let her fuss around over the garage's undisturbed tables and contents to recover some of her peace of mind, before talking sense and comfort. "You can relax this time, Braveheart. Jacques is a wily bastard, but he has no way of knowing your invention exists yet. Our neighbors and security systems didn't see any other intruders that might have avoided our notice, and I'll remind you that someone has to get up _pretty early_ in the morning to sneak past your old grandmother."

Mato finally relaxed enough to laugh. "The goons wouldn't get five feet before getting the boot."

"On my word," Grandma promised with equal parts affectionate humor and deadly seriousness. "Ready to go back inside?"

Mato nodded and, after making sure to lock up properly behind her, followed the adults. The gravel crunched softly under her boots this time. She spared a moment to appreciate the many trees which both beautified the family property, and also provided them with fresh fruits and nuts.

As they walked, Grandma talked. "Now that you understand why inventors would conceal even the mere existence of their discovery, you should see why the kings of old needed to step in. They created laws that would reward inventors for sharing their discoveries with the whole kingdom, and protect their ownership of those new ideas. That is the essence of patenting."

Dad took that as his cue. "The last kings of Vale and Mantle fought to build international patenting laws into the Vytal Accords." He shot a teasing smile at Grandma. "Stories have it that most of Vacuo's representatives were as unenthusiastic as Mistral's." Grandma rolled her eyes and lightly cuffed his shoulder. He continued, unrepentant, "Ironic that those laws are now going to help a Vacuan case against an Atlesian."

"Trust me; the King Albrecht I came to know after the War would have sided with our Mato before Jacques in a heartbeat. Misguided as he could be, the man truly wanted to do right by everyone. Certainly more than I did. Why do you think I trust Ironwood at all? The men were cut from the same steel."

"Honey, are you talking about other men again?" Grandpa asked theatrically as they re-entered the dining room. "I can only spend so much time in the gym, woman; please spare my ego."

"Just giving your countrymen their due, dear." She stretched up on her toes to peck him in the cheek. "Their banners fly far shorter than yours." 

"Mother!"

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that. What an awful child you are, to think me so lewd. I married your father for his _brain_ , or else you wouldn't be here. No 'banner' could have given you to me."

"Stooop~!" Mato whined, stuffing her pigtails into her ears. "I'm not a kid anymore, I _know_ what you're talking about!"

"Fine, fine; back to business. You need to prepare for war, Braveheart."

"Wait, what?!"

Grandpa clarified, "A _legal_ war, with papers and laws and lawyers. Patent law requires an inventor to prove that their invention is worthy of a patent, and others are allowed to contest the claim in court. Jacques Schnee isn't going to let you win without a fight."

"Worse," Dad said. "If we lose, the cat is out of the bag. You need to submit everything about your invention so that the panel can judge if it's worthy. The point is supposed to be that a patented technology becomes available to all, but it still happens even if a patent is denied. Big companies like the SDC abuse that by looking for any loophole to get a real discovery dismissed; when they succeed, it turns into a race to see whose Research and Development team can find the next advancement on that technology so that they can turn around and push for their own patent."

By now, Mato was shrinking backwards into her mother's embrace.

"Take courage, Braveheart. We have a plan."

Grandpa said, "There is no love lost between the SDC and all other Dust companies in the world; in the Dust market, they are mutual enemy Number One. All of the SDC's rivals would band together to take Jacques down a peg if they had an opportunity, especially if it would also work to their own benefits. Since you want to make your invention available to basically everyone but the SDC, you are going to become that opportunity."

"Before we go to the Vytal Patenting Office," Grandma said, "We can privately contact all of those rival companies, and inform them of that opportunity. Without disclosing the details of your invention to their experts, they would normally never trust such an offer. But with the Headmaster of Shade Academy vouching for us, they'll pay attenton. I'm confident that I can get Ozpin, Ironwood, and Lionheart onboard as well."

Her mother assured her, "It's not going to be a battle between just our lawyers versus Jacques' pack of suit-wearing Grimm. It's going to be his team against the _whole world."_

**Author's Note:**

> Her family members are all characters from different BRS sources, but I didn't think it necessary to reveal who is whom, yet.


End file.
